Pat Hansen searches through her recipe collection for Mae McNamee’s cherry coffee cake while seated in her Dysart kitchen last week. Hansen’s home was damaged by a tornado that hit Dysart on July 14. Despite having no power and a tree through her roof, Hansen spent the morning after the tornado baking coffee cake for family, friends, neighbors, and even members of a local media outlet by way of her generator.

Never doubt the power of fresh baked goods to soothe the soul, even if it means firing up your generator.

The morning after the July 14 EF-1 tornado touched down in Dysart, many residents woke up and immediately began helping their south side neighbors with tree removal, roof tarping, and general debris pick-up.

Blaine Street resident Pat Hansen was up bright and early, too — baking a cherry coffee cake despite an uprooted tree protruding from her roof.

“That night I didn’t sleep the best,” Hansen said as she sat in her kitchen recently, roofers hammering away and a large bare space visible in her backyard where the mature tree used to be.

“The next morning [July 15] I was up at four o’clock. I figured, I might as well get up. I had to get food ready. I knew they were coming.”

A photo taken by KGAN photojournalist Morgan Ward of Pat Hansen’s damaged home on Blaine Street the morning after the July 14 tornado cut a path across far southern Dysart. Ward framed the bottom of her photo with a piece of cherry coffee cake Hansen gave her fresh out of the oven just after 6 a.m. that morning.

The ‘they’ Hansen referred to were the many family and friends she knew would be arriving to help.

In addition to the tree through her roof, the tornado blew windows out throughout her home — spreading and embedding glass everywhere — damaged her garage door, car, and practically all of her outside furniture.

Just before the storm, Hansen said she had been eating supper and watching a Hallmark movie. Her kids called before the tornado hit and implored her to go down to the basement–which she did immediately.

“I sat on the couch and prayed. I prayed for everybody. While I was sitting on my couch I could hear all the glass breaking.”

Once the storm passed, Hansen was able to go back upstairs and take in the damage before her kids and grandkids — many of whom are local to Dysart — arrived.

“I looked out [the south windows] toward the corn, the tree was right through the center of the roof. The corn was flat.”

Hansen’s home was one of the more heavily damaged

The next morning before the sun was even a hint in the sky she got to work.

“My mother was quite a baker. And I love to bake.”

Hansen chose a cherry coffee cake recipe shared with her years ago by the late Mae McNamee — a name many in town would be familiar with, Hansen said. She also made a batch of brownies while the generator ran.

Hansen headed outside around 5:30 a.m. to take photos of the damage and noticed a photojournalist from Cedar Rapids media outlet KGAN doing the same.

With the fresh coffee cake on her mind, Hansen approached the journalist, Morgan Ward, to see if she would like a cup of coffee and a piece of cake.

“She was telling me I was up early,” Ward said using a laughing emoji via a text-based interview this past week. “[She] offered me coffee. Then offered me breakfast cake and I can’t turn that down. It honestly reminded me of home, I’m from the Cleveland area so it was sweet to feel that way.”

Ward interviewed Hansen for a live shot after which KGAN meteorologist Rebecca Kopelman tweeted of Hansen, “Iowa nice through a tornado outbreak.”

That is something Hansen carries with her wherever she goes, she explained–passing kindness on, feeding people’s souls.

As the roof work continued on her own home this past week, Hansen had another baking project on her mind — cookies for Chad and Heidi Spore’s family who live further west on Blaine Street and suffered significant damage to their home. For the time being the Spores must live elsewhere, Hansen said.

“I’m going to make two buckets of cookies. If nothing else, they’ll have some cookies.”

Cherry Coffee Cake from the kitchen of Mae McNamee

Cake

2 c flour

1 cup sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

½ stick butter

1 egg

Up to 1 c milk

1 can cherry pie filling

Topping

½ c flour

½ c brown sugar

½ c oatmeal (uncooked)

¼ c butter

¼ c chopped nuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350. Sift together 2 cups flour, 1 cup sugar, baking powder, and salt. Cut in ½ stick butter. Break egg into a measuring cup; add enough milk to make 1 cup liquid total. Add liquid to batter and mix very well. Pour into two 9-inch round pans or one 9X13 pan. Cover with cherry pie filling. Set aside.

Make topping by mixing all topping ingredients together. Sprinkle topping on top of cherry pie filling.

Bake round pans for 35-40 minutes. Bake 9X13 pan for 1 hour.